Question

Briefly explain the following statement from the text.

“You have passed through a fantastic experience: or more correctly, a catastrophic experience.”

Answer 1

This statement was made by Rajendra to Prof. Gaitonde in the text The Adventure by Jayant Vishnu Narlikar. Rajendra made this statement in the context of Prof. Gaitonde experiencing a different version of the outcome of the Battle of Panipat. Prof Gaitonde was a historian and he was invited to a seminar to speak on the Battle of Panipat. He was to make a point that if in the battle of Panipat the Marathas emerged victorious then what would have happened. Interestingly, Prof. Gaitonde happened to experience the very hypothesis as reality. He entered a different level of consciousness and was witnessing events like the Battle of Panipat in an altogether different version. In the History books, the Marathas are mentioned as being a loser in the battle but in his experience, the Marathas emerged victoriously. Prof. Gaitonde was unable to understand this phenomenon. It is in this context, Rajendra tried to offer a scientific explanation to rationalise Prof. Gaitonde's experience. He meant to say that what Prof. Gaitonde experienced was not imaginative or fantastic but was also real. He tried to explain this in light of the catastrophic theory. According to this theory, there can be many alternative realities simultaneously existing. An observer sees only one of the alternatives. By applying this theory, Rajendra tried to explain the outcome of the Battle of Panipat as revealed to Prof. Gaitonde. The catastrophic theory has been developed by observing the outcome of experiments on small systems like atom and their constituent particles. The behaviour of these systems cannot be predicted definitely even if all the physical laws governing those systems are known.